The release of patch 5 brought new life for the game and gave gamers a reason to re-visit Rebellion's newest Aliens vs Predator title. While the changes made to the game were much needed Rebellion left a few wants to be desired. Never the less it was off to a good start and the game got its pulse back. THEN we got the post. The post that told us support for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 had been cut! When asked about PC support they said they werent at liberty to discuss it at this time. Naturally, opinions started to fly around and people started to play other games again. Some AVP community sites pulled AVP Game support and others pulled their AVP Tournaments and shutdown all together.
I'm not sure what the future holds for us and until we get word from Rebellion it's a guessing game. So until I read a post that says PC support has been cut I'm going to assume they will continue PC support. If that's the case then these are things I would like to see SEGA/Rebellion/Fox do from a marketing position. Take advantage of the days when Steam has big deals. Offer 10 or 20% off the game, offer good deals on the two map packs if they buy them together or have one and not the other. There is nothing worse than to have a packed server and a DLC map comes up in the rotation and then all you see is a sea of Spam saying "Missing Content" and lose 80% of the players. This can also suck for the players that have paid for both Map Packs as well because they are forced to play on the standard maps as that is what the greater population has. This is also forcing administrators running dedicated servers to set configurations to run only standard maps or purchase a second server all together and label it DLC.
As for the game it's self I would like to see the following: in Patch # 6
[
Dedicated Server Settings]
I would like to be able to set a max ping on the Dedicated Server configuration file to help keep the server running smooth when administrators are not present. Also more room for the Server MOTD.
[
New Game Mode]
I would like to see a new game mode, let's call it
Tournament Mode. Tournament mode would have 2 settings (
Open) and (
Event) Play.
Open Play is ideal for the everyday dedicated server. It will allow players to join teams and wait in line to play.
Event Play is Ideal for Community Events and KOTH Style Tournaments. This setting will only have 3 Teams. Teams 1 and 2 and a 3rd Team called "Spectators". Only Teams 1 and 2 will play each other. Spectators will only be able to view/watch the match.
So this is how the new game mode would work. You set the Server Match to a 1vs1, 2vs2 or 3vs3) with an option to set how many spectator slots you want from 12, 14 or 16 depending on your match settings. At the (MP) launch menu screen allow players to join a specific team with the ability to lock the team after it is full (Good for when friends are playing together). When the game is launched the server will pick two teams to face off as the rest of the players join the spectators team and wait in line to play "winner stays up" and the server just rotates the teams until the set number of matches is reached.
Time & Score Limits for 18 slot servers
3vs3 (
Open Play) (
18 Players) Ideal time limits for 3v3: 6 matches with a match time of 10minutes each and a score limit of 45. The winner of the game would be the team that wins the most. (
Event Play) Ideal 3vs3 (1 match) time limit is 15 minutes with a score limit of 45.
2vs2 (
Open Play)(
16 players) Ideal time limits for 2vs2 with 8 matches is 8 minutes per match and a score limit of 30. The winner of the game would be the team that wins the most. (
Event Play) Ideal 2vs2 (1 match) time limit is 15 minutes with a score limit of 30.
1vs1 (
Open Play) (
18 players) Ideal time limits for 1vs1 - 18 matches with a match time of 7 minutes per match and a score limit of 12. The winner of the game would be the team that wins the most. (
Event Play) Ideal 1vs1 (1 match) time limit is 15 minutes with a score limit of 12.
As for Spectating, have an option in the server settings that would allow spectators to have free view of the Map/Match (flying). Would be awesome for recording videos to help promote Tournaments and capture awesome KOTH moments et cetera. Also, have a setting for (Fixed) camera positions for spectators in the configuration file so the admin has the option to enable or disable free view. Now with a game mode like this you will need new (and smaller) 1vs1, 2v2, and 3vs3 maps to play on. On the plus side, all they would need to do is add-on to the 4player maps they have already made. Seeing how we don't get to play on them much anyway (Tip for Sega), give the new Tournament maps out for free! It's always nice to give a dog a bone now and again. It also lets the community know your listening to your fans.
This is just a few of the things I would like to see happen for AVP. We here at AVPSource would like to hear from you and get your feed-back. Let us know what you think of our ideas and what you would like to see SEGA and Rebellion do and what changes you would like to see in patch 6 if in fact there ever is a patch 6.